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Finally….. call just came in! Writing this as quickly as I can as I know so many have been praying and want to know the results of yesterday’s scan. Good news… the mass is about half the size that it was originally. The liver spots are reduced and the bones in the pelvic area and spine, showed marked improvement. (This was not a full body – only pelvis, chest, abdomen. We will do a full body a little later – this scan was to prepare for surgery.) I have to be honest, we were hoping for more, but I must be patient and thankful as God ‘s healing hands ARE AT WORK! I have to remember that Jake’s situation may not only be about him, so many are being engaged by his circumstance. Cancer awareness, patience, prayerfulness, solidarity, LOVE is being formed within the minds and hearts of so many. I think of Pastor Andrew’s 1 Cor 13 message from Sunday and I believe God is using Jake to spread His message of love. I think Dr. Foster could hear my disappointment and emphasized that “what we take from this IS good news… he IS responding to treatment. Some kids show very little

improvement or none, he is not one of them. His cancer is reducing. The way in which his cancer was presenting and the way he looks physcially is so much different and better right now than just a few months ago. This is what, we as doctors, want to see”. The bad news… he has a stress fracture on his L5 vertebrae. When we were meeting last week, I brought up the fact that his walk and gait have a distinct waddle and she observed him for a bit and gave several possible reasons… now we know that this may be part of it. However, she feels that his waddling is mostly due one of the chemotherapy drugs. As a side effect it will affect the movement in the joints and bones, especially his ankles, knees and hips…. as the chemo is eating the cancer from all of these areas, the bones hollow and become brittle. They should repair over time as the body regenerates new bone, but this will take time and it isn’t an easy task for the body during chemo treatments. It is on overload working to repair so many things right now. He doesn’t say he’s in pain, he just walks like a little old man. SO our goal is to keep a four-year old mobilized as best as possible. No trampolines, sofa hopping or anything high impact. HA!!! We see our surgeon and Onc team on Thursday to prep for next Wednesday’s surgery. Thank you, thank you, thank you and God bless you for your prayers. I know Jake’s name was heard in the heavens the past few days loud and clear. While Monday had a few bumps we had to jump, we made it through and it wasn’t as traumatic for Jake as the past couple of visits. We are so blessed to have so many loving and kneeling on Jake’s behalf! We are Keepin’ the Faith… our warrior is battling and God is on our side! “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Romans 8:31 NLT And as I sit here and write, my radio plays, God is speaking, it’s my own special “God wink” that He loves me, saying there is Hope… just wait… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7TSGptd3Y

It’s been a strange visit! We’ve had an x-ray of the foot for a possible break (four year olds running in socks are really dangerous), an x-ray of the chest (the reminents of his RSV cough began to get worse while inpatient), and four of us staying in one room because the girls decided to stay the whole weekend with Jake. This was actually good for him but not so sure how good it was for me. Just sayin’! Actually, it wasn’t too bad but there were definitely moments where I’m sure the neighbors on both sides were wondering what was going on in here. They can get a little noisy! Althought the floor was jumping a bit this weekend with lots of families as many of them came up to watch the games together… a good weekend for both of our teams… Go Texans and WHOOP! Way to go Ags! The girls ended up in Jake’s bed and he ended up in mine. We made it all work and the girls know the hospital backward, forward, up and down. They found 3 gift shops, the food court, the Women’s Pavilion Cafeteria, and the 16th floor vending machines. You’d think they were on vacation! We had a couple of visitors – Adriene and her daddy, Dan Bodin, who I am thankful for a wonderful, home cooked, meal. And Michelle came up bearing gifts. Her company did a sock and slippers drive so she brought a BIG box of them for all of the kids on the floor. We had the priveledge of going room to room to let the kids pick

some fuzzy, soft, warm socks or slippers. It’s hard to understand what something so small can do for these kids until you see how much it makes them smile. As for now, Jake’s 72 hours of chemo just finished up, he’s getting a blood transfusion to juice him up till we are back Thursday (since his hemoglobin is a wooping 6.2), we will be going home accessed, and he’s flushing so we can be ready to hit the road jack! We are ready to get back home. We’ll be back several times while his counts recover to check in and for transfusions. And his big MIBG will be scheduled in about two weeks to see how the chemotherapy has been working. We’ll be praying for really good scans, for a screen with very little markings, and for the Docs to say they are ready for us to meet with Dr. V (our surgeon) to remove the mass that started it all. At the moment, Daddy has turned Jake on to Green Lantern as “the greatest Super Hero”. I think it’s funny to hear the nurses ask him about his favorite and have him say “Green Lanter, cuz my Daddy says it is”. But for him it’s still all about the dinos! He was actaully stumped by one that Adriene brought and they had to find it in one of his books. I think it’s one of the first that he didn’t know right off the bat. You better believe he knows it now! The kids go back to school tomorrow and Jake and I will rest for the next couple of days. You know hospitals and the night time noises and busyness… as Jake yells to the nurses… “beep, beeeep, beeeeep, beeeeeeeep!” (Luckily, he’s so stinkin’ cute because when he wants to, he can sound just like one of those migraine making machines.)